


Playing the Long Game

by FujinoLover



Category: Killing Eve (TV 2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-26
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2020-03-19 22:33:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18979684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FujinoLover/pseuds/FujinoLover
Summary: Eve didn’t kill Raymond, Villanelle did.





	Playing the Long Game

Raymond had Villanelle cornered, his chubby hands wrapped around her neck. He was right, Eve was in one of those rooms. She was right as well, the ruckus of their fight would draw Eve out. Eve had the recklessness on point nowadays, walking into dangerous situation instead of getting away from it like a normal person would. Villanelle knew Eve wasn’t normal—they were the same.

“Yes...” Villanelle croaked out, watching Eve taking up the axe and moving closer. Eve was terrified, so as a supportive girlfriend, she encouraged her further. “Do it.”

“What?”

“Do it!”

Raymond thought she was taunting him to finish her off. “Shut up,” he said, squeezing harder.

“Stop it.”

His hold on Villanelle’s neck didn’t cease, but he did look over his shoulder, at Eve and then at the axe on her hands. “She’s not gonna do it, is she?” He sniggered. “Doesn’t have it in her.”

“Let go of her.”

“You know how long it would take to kill me with an axe?” Raymond continued to taunt. “You’d have to chip away at me.”

“Please stop.” Eve sounded more desperate, more certain as the situation drove her to the edge.

Raymond didn’t give her more than a glance. “Chunks flying off everywhere.”

Villanelle would have laughed at what a fool he was being if she could. Telling Eve that she couldn’t do something, taunting her, was the surest way to make her do it. That was how she ended up getting stabbed. She had learned her lesson, he was going to learn his.

The fact that he was hurting—killing Villanelle should be taken into account as well, because Eve loved her. Eve wanted to keep her safe, Villanelle knew, had proven it from when Eve barged in on her and Aaron. So instead of reaching for the gun that had been digging on the small of her back, she whimpered, “Eve...”

That snapped Eve out of her moral dilemma and into the adrenaline-laced instinct. The axe buried itself on Raymond’s back, his warm blood hit Villanelle on the face just as she almost lost consciousness. He cried out in pain, losing his grip on her.

Villanelle slid down, panting for the much needed air. The pride she had felt when Eve finally took the swing turned into annoyance when she saw where Eve had hit him. “The shoulder? _The shoulder_?” Eve could have gone for his head or even his neck, there was quite a vast amount of target there, but no, she just had to axe him on the goddamn shoulder. It was ridiculous, and so very _Eve_ it was endearing. “Eve, the shoulder?”

“Well, I don’t know, do I!”

Raymond clambered for the axe, but he couldn’t reach it, so he went for Eve. Villanelle was quick to crawl to him, grasping one of his legs so he fell forward with another scream. His whiny cries were getting annoying, he needed to shut up real quick. Villanelle looked at him, the axe sticking on his shoulder, and then up at Eve, who was trembling like a leaf but standing her ground as though she was waiting for an instruction from Villanelle, unwilling to disappoint her with another missed hit. Eve was so open and receptive. She could coax her to kill him with just a few words.

It was tempting, to use the opportunity to give in to what Villanelle had wanted all along—what _they_ had wanted. Just a small push and Eve would cross the line with no turning back. Then she would finally see herself just like how Villanelle saw her, beautiful and dangerous and free. It was a push nonetheless, and Eve would shove her back. She didn’t risk the chance.

Eve had to be eased into it. She had refused the offer to watch Villanelle’s ‘talk’ with The Ghost. So Villanelle made her watch Amber’s babysitter fell into her tragic death—that was a nudge. Eve had only ever watched from afar until not an hour ago, up-close with Aaron. She also had swung the axe at Raymond, making her kill him too would be too much excitement for a day. Gentle guidance instead of jerky shove, Villanelle reminded herself. The next milestone should be Eve killing someone, by proxy or from afar. Poison or gun, nothing intimate. Villanelle was grooming her to be her bride and she would be patient.

With great struggle, Villanelle climbed over Raymond, planting a knee on the middle of his back to keep him down. She was just going to reach for the axe handle to help herself up, but Eve took her hand first and used all of the strength hidden in her small body to pull her up to her feet. Villanelle was smitten. It couldn’t be Eve’s first kill, but it still could be their first kill together.

Villanelle took the axe out of Raymond’s back with a disgusting squelch and more of his scream. The gun would be faster, but also louder. Eve had watched her with Aaron, but he was clean and quick. She was determined to make sure that Raymond would be neither. Bending on her waist, she grabbed his arm and flipped him around to lie on his back. The bloody axe slung over her shoulder, she was going to cut some log.

“They will take you apart for this. Both of you. And everyone you know, inch by inch.”

Villanelle glanced at Eve then, assessing her expression for any sign of change. Of fear or hesitation. There was none. She held the hilt of the axe with both hands, positioning it high over her head for maximum swing.

“Please.” Raymond switched to begging. People did when they knew death was coming. “I have children.”

One last look at Eve, just to confirm that there was no pity either, Villanelle swung the axe full force. It struck the junction between his neck and shoulder. He gurgled. With a foot on his chest, she pulled the axe out. Blood poured from the gaping wound in earnest, pooling on the tiles and sipping into the rug. He would die of exsanguinations within a minute or so. She gazed at Eve, who stood frozen over him, eyes wide yet unmoving. Villanelle smiled, swinging her axe again. This time the blade landed a little higher, taking chunk out of Raymond’s neck. She watched the light vanished from his eyes, drowned in the blood surrounding his limp body.

The axe fell with a clatter and the noise of their heavy breathing was the only one filling the hall. Villanelle stepped over Raymond’s body; fingers came under Eve’s chin to nudge her head up. She could see the darkness in her dark brown eyes, bright and simmering and aching to be freed. Someday soon.

“I think I’m gonna be sick,” Eve whispered, curling a hand against her stomach.

“Swallow it.” Villanelle let her go, using the back of her hand to wipe the blood off her own cheek. “Alright? It’s not safe.” She offered Eve the same hand, smudging her palm in red as she led her to step around Raymond. “Someone will come after him, we have to go.”

There were armed men outside the hotel, so they got out through the back. Eve followed almost absentmindedly to a building that Villanelle busted the padlock of. There was a shortcut there. Because while Villanelle didn’t bother reading the file about Aaron, she did read up about the city, just because she would rather not be stranded and lost. The underground passage led them up to the Maritime Theater of Hadrian’s Villa, a theoretically inaccessible residence miniature destined to the emperor’s retreat and reflection, the perfect place for them to catch their breath after the hectic day.

“It’s beautiful.”

Bathed in the sun, with blood speckling her red clothes, Villanelle laughed. Her steps light as she skipped over the stones before she turned back to Eve and asked, “What do you want for dinner?”

Eve was stunned. “Dinner?”

“Mm.” Villanelle walked backwards then, her eyes never leaving Eve. “Tonight I could make dinner.”

There were so much for Eve to take in, so many things had happened. Hugo was shot. She watched Villanelle killed Aaron. Carolyn had been manipulating her all along. She watched Villanelle almost getting killed. She hit Raymond with an axe. She watched Villanelle butchering Raymond with the same axe. Now they were in some sort of ancient ruin—the perfect analogy of her crumbling world—and Villanelle planned to make her dinner and the day hadn’t even ended yet. It all felt too surreal.

“Oh. Spaghetti?”

That evoked another laughter from Villanelle. Would spaghetti bolognese be too much after what happened with Raymond? Chunks of meat swimming in the red tomato sauce, it was going to be fun watching Eve eat it. “Good idea.” There was an excitement bubbling inside her that she couldn’t quite contain. Killing with Eve made her felt like a soda bottle after being shaken, ready to burst. “I was thinking, we should go to Alaska. Have you seen pictures?” She did. A lot of pictures from a lot of googling. “It’s so amazing. We could, uh, get a cabin. Nobody would bother us there. We’d be normal.”

That was all she ever wanted, not because she wanted to be like everyone else—she realized that she was different since forever ago. She wanted normal, because it was something she never had a taste of. She could try normal with Eve, because they were the same. They were like a double negative, two negatives words used in the same sentence turning the sentence into a positive one. It was poor grammar and could be confusing, but it made sense. _They_ made sense, together.

“And I have money so you don’t need to worry about that.”

“Okay.”

Even though Eve was responsive, it was clear that she was on auto-pilot. When she halted, just staring over the channel, Villanelle went back to her. “You’ll feel better soon,” she said as her hand trailed down Eve’s forearm to hold on her wrist. “I’ll look after you.” She couldn’t stop herself from grinning. “It’s going to be amazing.”

They continued to the north of the circular porch, where the main entrance was. Villanelle voiced her amazement as they reached the round plant of the central part; it was preceded by what was left of a rectangular pronao. For a building that was constructed in travertine, brick, lime, pozzolana, and tufa, and dated back to 2nd century, it was indeed fabulous. They had just reached the hall when the birds flew overhead, surprising Villanelle enough to draw her gun out.

“It’s just the birds.” Villanelle laughed, apparently still coiled tight with wariness. “We’re fine.”

Eve zeroed at the gun on Villanelle’s hand. “You have a gun?” she asked, feeling herself slowly grounded back at the moment.

“Yeah.”

“Since when?”

Villanelle resumed walking, not facing Eve. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Why didn’t you...” The little _hmm?_ she got from Villanelle irked her further. “Why didn’t you shoot Raymond?”

Villanelle stopped then. “It would be boring,” she said with a grin, tucking the gun back on the waistband of her pants. “I wanted it to be fun.” _for you to watch_ , was the part she left unsaid yet heard loud and clear by Eve. “How did it feel?”

Eve stared down at her hands. There was no blood caking under her nails, unlike when she stabbed Villanelle. She was clean, yet she was an accessory to a murder— _another_ murder. She had been one for a while now, but Raymond was the closest she had been. She had actually hit him with an axe. Her hands trembled as she recalled the weight of it, its speed as the blade cut through clothing then the soft tissues underneath, deep before it met the resistance of solid bones. Then Villanelle, hovering over Raymond with the same axe, cutting him down like a log. A chunk of him fell off. The pool of blood. Eve was sure there were blood splatters on her shoes.

“Wet,” she eventually answered.

Villanelle chuckled, holding both of Eve’s shaky hands in her own steady ones. “Yeah, me too.”

Eve narrowed her eyes at the inappropriate joke. She could only hold up the façade for a few seconds before a smile broke on her lips. Villanelle mirrored her, sighing in relief. Ever since she killed Aaron, there had been a metaphorical axe hanging over herself, ready to cut her in half if she did as much as making the wrong decision or giving the wrong answer. It was gone now.

Villanelle kept Eve’s hand as they made their way out of the Hadrian’s Villa and rounded back to the car. She had taken the gun with her, but the cash was still in the dashboard and they needed that. There were no more armed men outside the hotel; the Twelve’s cleaner must have gotten rid of Raymond too.

With no sign of imminent danger, they took the car to Termini Station. Villanelle bought a couple of first class tickets for the three-hour trip to Santa Maria Novella Station in Florence. She had more money and fake IDs stashed somewhere in Florence, but it would take time to get Eve hers so they could enjoy the city for a while before flying to Alaska. There was no rush, they had all the time in the world.

Once the scenery changed as the train left the city behind, Eve’s head lolled to Villanelle’s shoulder. The excitement of the day must have exhausted her. Villanelle did take the opportunity this time, leaning her own on the top of Eve’s head. The curls were soft against her cheek, but she scowled when she inhaled the scent of cheap hotel shampoo. She had to fix that as soon as they arrived in Florence, she couldn’t let Eve do more damage on her amazing hair. For the moment, however, she was going to enjoy their closeness.

Some dumb couple in love had left their initials on the back of the seat in front of her. Between the initials was a heart, fully blackened by the markers, which she reached out to trace. “I love you,” she whispered to the top of Eve’s head, her voice too light, drowned by the noises of the train. It did feel like that for her, like love, at least she thought so. “You’re mine.” She didn’t expect any reply to her confession; she knew Eve loved her too, even though she hadn’t fully realized it yet. Eve was in deep sleep, but she did snuggle closer to her and it was enough. _This_ was enough. She already had Eve all for herself anyway.


End file.
